Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Embraces Indy’s Fear of Snakes

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home December 25, 2024 2 Views 5 Min Read
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Embraces Indy’s Fear of Snakes

Few things are iconic and distinct when assessing what defines Dr. Henry Jones—known colloquially as Indiana Jones. For instance, he has an affinity for his fedora, so much so that he’s willing to lose an arm to retrieve it before it’s lost behind a Peruvian slab of stone forever. Also, whenever possible, Indy also has a whip equipped as both a means of mid-ranged defensive combat and a means of impromptu traversal, which is highly unconventional. Indy’s not afraid to draw a revolver and shoot someone, especially in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and MachineGames’ action-adventure game thoroughly illustrates every one of the character’s defining traits with quite a number of satisfying developments.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was MachineGames’ opportunity to truly flesh out individual facets of the protagonist like these, and one it triples down on unabashedly is Indy’s ophidiophobia. Indeed, what initially appears to be a gimmick stretched too thin culminates in a colossally unprecedented and terrifying surprise lurking in Sukhothai.

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Indiana Jones and the Great Circle’s Snake References Begin as Cute Jabs

Players’ possible first brush with a snake in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle actually takes place in its opening Raiders of the Lost Ark prologue, but it’s not on the beaten path. Instead, this is a hidden blink-and-miss-it Easter egg with a snake quickly slithering out of view with Indy calming himself down after having witnessed it.

In Indiana Jones and the Great Circle’s Gizeh, players eventually come across Osiris, Nawal’s pet snake whom Indy struggles to feed while Nawal and Gina converse. If this was the only story-related snake reference it might’ve been sufficient, but Indy is tormented further in Sukhothai when he’s told to confront his fears and reach into the so-called “Jar of Terror” that seemingly has a snake within. Rather, to the amusement of those around him, Indy withdraws a length of pork intestines.

At this point, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle appears to harp on Indy’s fear far too heavily, which trivializes snake imagery and renders it unimpactful. The cherry on top of this exploited and abused motif is when a relatively small snake lands on Indy’s shoulder as he and Gina emerge from watery ruins blanketed in overgrowth and take their boat onto a lake. Here, the tiny snake’s playful scare is followed instantly by a real, mythologically enormous snake making its presence known and plunging its hulking mass into the lake players are on.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Validates Indy’s Fears with a Giant Snake Boss Fight

It isn’t entirely clear how big this snake is, let alone that it’s truly a snake at all, until players must dive into the lake with their newly purchased rebreather. Navigating tiny crawl spaces underwater and swimming frantically between them, Indy is tasked with somehow circumventing a massive serpent while not suddenly being struck down in a panic attack as he surely would be.

This is a superb iteration of Indy’s vulnerability that Indiana Jones and the Great Circle dramatizes to an absurdly theatrical and horrific scale, and its timing couldn’t be more perfect as it arrives right as the snake gimmick had grown overly stale with multiple humorous pokes at Indy’s expense. This sequence goes on for a while, too, with players avoiding open water as much as possible before ultimately having to defend themselves from the humongous beast and hurl spare spears into its snarling mouth in one of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle’s few legitimate boss fights.

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